Progress Update

Hey everyone, we have been hard at work (as usual) on the van. This update covers a variety of fixes on the rig that I will go over to give you an understanding of whats going on.

Photo 1: All metal inside the vehicle was sanded and cleaned with acetone. Then sprayed with a primer and painted with Rustoleum paint to help seal the metal from potential moisture and rust issues down the road.

Photo 2: This is one of the areas that had some water damage on the floor. After cutting out this section of the floor and staring at it for a minute I had an ah ha! moment. Under the vehicle in this area is where I was going to mount our extra house batteries to the frame. But now we will have a metal box fabricated to drop in the hole and have top access to the batteries making it much easier to remove them in the future. If this is hard for you to visualize stay tuned for future posts!

Photo 3-4: The stairs had fairly heavy rust on them but it was all surface rust so we scraped the loose flakes off with a crowbar and then took a wire wheel to them to knock off the remaining rust. The brown coating is the primer and the black is the rust prevention paint.

Photo 5-6: These are the areas in the back of the van that had water damage. We used marine grade plywood to help withstand any further moisture issues on the flooring and also painted the underside and edges of the new sheets to help protect the wood from road grime under the vehicle. We also used a marine grade adhesive, 3M 5200 to seal the new plywood and glue it down to the framing below.

Photos 7-9: Loctite expansion foam was used to fill in voids and gaps around the wheel wells.

Photos 10-12: The corner of the van's wall had peeled back and was the cause of one of the water leaks. I riveted the sheet to the metal frame inside of the vehicle and then used the same 3M 5200 adhesive to seal the joints along this panel as well. Now it is nice and sturdy!

Thats it for now, stay tuned for more van action and updates in a few days!